Sewing machine



F. RICKS SEWING MACHINE Ami]! 33(0), 1935.

Filed Nov. 10, 1932 5 Sheets-Sheet l F. RICKS SEWING MACHINE April 36),3935.

Filed Nov. 10, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Aprill 3% H930 RHCKS 11 99936132SEWING MACHINE Filed Nov. 10, 1952 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Patented Apr. 30,1935 UNITED- stra g oFF'icE Application November 10, 1932, Serial No.642,051 In GreatBritain December 10,1931

6Claiims;

This invention relates. to sewing. machines and is. particularly, but byno means exclusively; concerned: with boot or. shoe inseam. sewing machines for use in sewing, together the welt, up-

, per and insole of a-weltshoe or the upper and sole of a-.tur-nshoe.

An example of this classof. machine is the well-known. Goodyear welt andturn shoe' sewing machine which is=disclosed in U. S; Patent toEppler,No. 1,108,550:dated-August125; 1914 and which may be. provided with:continuous work feedmechanism such as: issdisolosediin-the U. S. Patent.to Topham No. 1,289,314, dated-De cember 31, 1918.

Machines of thisclass have a curved hookneedle, a looper, a-threadfinger and: take-up which cooperate 1 informing a. chain stitch seam;During the formation: of each stitch the thread finger isiswungrearwardly of the machine and draws a bight of: the'thread which extendsbetween the workand'ztherlooper, the needle then having penetratedthe-work and; beingin posi tion to have the thread. laid in itsrhook.bythe 1ooper.- After the. looperhas laid the. thread inthe-hook. of. theneedle and. as the needlemoves back. to draw a loop ofv thread. through.the work, the thread: fingerswingsforwardly and gives up' thread to oneside of the: needle while the thread. at the other side of. the needleis drawn through the looper.

In machines as heretofore constructed a dif-- ficulty has been sometimesexperienced. in maxnipulating. theshoe while: it is being operated uponso" as. to present successive portions of the parts to be sewn. togetherproperly to-the sew-- ing devices. Thisxdifiicultyv has been due to thefact that thethread finger as it swings.- back may sometimes hit againstthe upstanding: channeLlip or lips of. the insole and tend to push' theshoe downwardly away from the sewing deevices. This difiicultyis foundto be greater when sewingf round the-toe of a-shoe than'when sewingalong the side because the channel lip or lips and the upper materialsare more com-- pact than at the sides and offer greater.resistintermittently but in such machines: can be overcome-to a largeextent, if. not indeed wholly;- by careful. manipulation of the shoe. Inmachines in which. the shoe is fed intermittently the turning at the toeor manipulating of theshoe is-intendedto be done-by the operator whilethe shoe is being fed. and. therefore while the needle-isoutof theworkand it will be apparent that the movement of theshoe during itsfeedindicates-to the operator the time ineachcycle during whichthe shoe canbest be manipulated. When, however, the shoe isbeing fed continuously.orsubstantially so, as in a machine-fitted with continuousfeed-mechanism, there isnoth ing-,to indicate to theoperatorwhentheneedle is-outof the work and careful-.manipulationofa theshoeto:overcorne the difiiculty above referred to is rendered moredifiicult.

One. of the several objects ofthe present invention is to overcome theaforementioned difficulty and this object may be achieved in onepreferred way, according to the presentinven tion, which willbehereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings In thedrawings Fig. 1 illustrates, in side ele vation, a portion of a weltshoe sewing machine embodying the present invention, whichsewingmachine-is of the general construction described inthe patentsabovereferred to,- andmore par ticularly in. the patent to-Topham; Fig.2' is a view in side elevation on a somewhat larger scale than Fig. 1ofpart of awelt-shoe sewingmachine embodying thepresent invention, whichmachine. is of the. general construction described in thepatents abovereferred topand more particularly. in the patent toEppler; Fig. 3isa-view in front elevationpartly in section of a portion of the mechanismillustrated in Fig; 2'; Figs; 1- to 7= inclusive illustrate.diagrammatically an arrangement of. channel guide, back rest,. needle;looper, and thread finger with the parts in some of. the differentrelative positions they occupy during the formation of a stitch in themachines shown inFigs. 1,2, and 3; Fig. 8 shows in plan the toe end. ofa welt shoe and the relative'position of the parts illustrated in Figs.4 to 7- at one point in the formation of a stitch, and Fig; 9illustrateson an enlarged scale a portion. of the arrangement forsupporting and actuating the looper.

In the drawings l is the. channel guide, 2 the backrest, 3 the needle, 3the looper, and 5 the thread finger of the said welt sewing machine;

In Figure a the parts are shown inthe relative positions they occupywhen the machine comeszto restIand a shoe whichihas. been sewncan'ibeirei-- moved and a fresh shoe presented to the machine.

In Figure 5 the thread finger 5 has swung back to take a bight of thethread which extends between the looper 4 and the work and the needlehas passed through the work.

In Figure 6 the needle and thread finger are in the same positions as inFigure 5 but the looper 5 has moved down and is part way round the pointof the needle in its looping movement.

In Figure '7 the needle and thread finger are in the same positions asin Figures 5 and 6 and the looper i is shown as having moved round thepoint of the needle and laid the thread in the barb.

In Figure 8 the needle 3, thread finger 5 and looper 4 are shown in thesame relative positions as in Figure 6 and this figure illustrates themovement of the thread finger along the channel lip or lips when sewinground the toe of a shoe as hereinbefore referred to.

It will be observed from Figures l and '7 of the drawings by thosefamiliar with this class of machine as in general use that the threadfinger 5 performs its swinging movement well above the channel lips andmargin of the upper, that is to say, in an unusually elevated positionso that it cannot encounter any part of the shoe properly presented tothe machine. To allow the thread finger to take its bight of thread, thelooper A has also been caused to move into an unusually elevatedposition so that the thread finger and looper at the time in the cycleof the machine when .the thread finger takes its bight of thread aresubstantially in the same relative positions as heretofore. To enablethe looper 4, however, to lay the thread in the barb of the customaryneedle coming in each cycle to the conventional position, it is causedto move towards the needle in the direction of the length of the needleor dip by suitable modification of its operating mechanism ashereinafter described from its raised position so that it can performits looping operation and is then raised again so that the thread fingercan take its bight of thread duringthe next cycle. By causing the threadfinger and looper to cooperate in a raised position and causing thelooper to have an up and down movement in the direction of the length ofthe needle to efiect the laying of the thread in the barb of the needle,ample clearance is provided between the work and the thread finger atall times so that the shoe can be freely manipulated when the needle isout of the work without interference by the thread finger.

In the operating mechanism of the looper hereinbefore referred to andillustrated in Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the drawings the looper s isactuated in its movement across and forwardly and rearwardly of themachine to lay the thread in the barb of the needle by mechanism similarto that shown in the Eppler patent, but the looper instead of beingfixed in the arm 6 is formed on a bar I which is slidingly mounted in aguideway formed in the lower end of the arm 6, which guideway issubstantially parallel when viewed from the front and side of themachine to the arm. a

The bar I has extending laterally from it a stud 8 having a ball endwhich makes a universal connection with the lower end of an upwardly andforwardly extending link 9, the upper end of which, in a welt shoesewing machine in which the work is fed continuously as in the machinedescribed in the Topham patent, and shown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, hasa universal connection with the cam arm H! which efiects the swinging ofthe channel guide towards and. from the channel. In a welt sewingmachine in which the work is fed step by step and in which the channelguide as it is moved towards the work moves along a line approaching theneedle and inclined to the direction of feed, as described in the Epplerpatent, the upper end of the link 9 is, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 of thedrawings connected by a universal joint to an arm H. The arm H ispivoted on the head of a shaft l2, corresponding to the shaft referredto as 15 in the Eppler patent, and is secured by a screw I3 to an arm Mof a cam lever l5 which is pivoted on a sleeve H5 in which the shaft I2is rotatably mounted and which sleeve is secured in a bracket ll fixedon the machine head. The lever l5 carries a cam roll l8 which enters acam groove in a cam ring l9 secured to the cam block 28, in which is theusual cam groove by which the channel guide is moved towards and fromthe work. The cam groove in the cam ring I9 is similar to the groovewhich actuates the cam lever referred to as 28 in the Topham patent,which latter cam imparts to the channel guide a movement towards andfrom the work support. In this way the looper is given a similar up anddown movement in a welt sewing machine having a continuous work feed orin a machine having a step by step feed.

In Figure 3 the cam arm which moves the channel guide towards and fromthe work is shown at 2 l. shaft !2 and at the other end carries a camroll 22 on a stud 23 fixed in the arm, which stud passes through the camring l9. By means of the cam arm referred to as 28 in the Topham patentor the cam arm i5 and link'9, the looper 3 is caused to dip during eachcycle of the machine from its unusually elevated position so that itcan, by means of the mechanism shown in the Eppler patent lay the threadin the barb of the needle and is then by the cam arm and link raisedagain to its elevated position. Owing to its connection to the cam arm,the dipping 0f the looper occurs at the same time as the moving ofthechannel guideway from the channel to allow of its return feed movementand the raising of the looper occurs when the channel guide is movedback into engagement with the channel. At the same time that the looperis caused to dip from its elevated position it is also swung to theright (viewing the machine from the front) and moved forwardly by themechanism shown in the Eppler patent to move it from the left hand sideof the needle, where the thread finger takes its bight of thread to theright hand side of the needle and remains in this dipped position whileits lower end is moved completely round the needle by the lattermechanism to lay the thread in the barb of the needle. As the needlemoves back to draw its loop of thread through the work, the looper isswung to the left by the last mentioned mechanism and at the same timeis raised from its dipped position by the link and cam arm to return itto its position at the left of the needle where the thread finger canagain take its bight of thread.

The nature and object of the invention having been explained, andmechanism in which it may be embodied having been specifically describedwhat is claimed is:

1. An inseam shoe sewing machine having, in combination, stitch formingdevices including a curved hook needle, a looper and a thread fingerarranged to give up thread as the needle withdraws from the work and tomove in an elevated path at a distance from the work and from the Thecam arm 2'! is secured at one end to the needle barb while the needle isthrough the work suflicient to clear the channel lip and upper margin ofthe shoe, means for actuating the looper to carry the thread into thepath of movement of the thread finger and around the needle, and meansfor moving the looper during each cycle of operations towards the needlein the direction of the length of the needle to cause the thread firstto be engaged by the thread finger and thereafter to be engaged in theneedle barb.

2. An inseam shoe sewing machine having, in combination, stitch formingdevices including a curved hook needle, a looper and a thread fingerarranged to give up thread as the needle withdraws from the work and tomove back and forth across the channel lip and upper margin of the shoein an elevated path at a distance from the work and from the needle barbWhile the needle is through the work sufficient to clear the channel lipand upper margin of the shoe, means for actuating the looper to carrythe thread into the path of movement of the thread finger and around theneedle, and means for moving the looper during each cycle of operationsupwardly from the work to cause the thread to be engaged by the threadfinger at the proper time in each cycle of operations for the nextsucceeding stitch.

3. An inseam shoe sewing machine having, in combination, stitch formingdevices including a curved hook needle and a looper, a back rest, achannel guide, means for actuating the channel guide towards and fromthe back rest, means for actuating the looper during each cycle ofoperation of the machine to carry the thread around the needle, andconnections between the channel guide actuating means and the looper formoving the looper towards and from the needle in the direction of thelength of the needle.

4. An inseam shoe sewing machine having, in combination, stitch formingdevices including a curved hook needle, a looper, a thread finger, a

back rest, and a channel guide, means for actuating the channel guidetowards and from the back rest, means for actuating the looper duringeach cycle of operation of the machine to carry the thread into the pathof movement of the thread finger and around the needle, and connectionsbetween the channel guide actuating means and the looper for moving thelooper towards the needle in the direction of the length of the needleafter the thread is engaged by the thread finger.

5. An inseam shoe sewing machine having, in combination, stitch formingdevices including a curved hook needle and a looper, a back rest, achannel guide, means for actuating the channel guide towards and fromthe back rest, a slide on which the looper is supported, a looperactuating member having a guideway for the slide extending inapprcximately the direction of the length of the needle, means formoving the actuating member to carry the thread extending from thelooper around the needle, and connections between the slide and thechannel guide actuating means for reciprocating the slide to shift thelooper towards and from the position where it may lay the thread withinthe needle barb.

6. An inseam shoe sewing machine having, in combination, stitch formingdevices including a curved hook needle, a looper and a thread finger,

a slide on which the looper is supported, a looper actuating memberhaving a guideway for the slide extending in approximately the directionof the length of the needle, means for moving the actuating member tocarry the thread extending from the looper into the path of movement ofthe thread finger and around the needle, and means for actuating theslide to shift the looper from one position in which the thread fingerreceives the thread into another position in which the thread is laidwithin the needle barb.

FRED RICKS.

